Blogs

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Comments

  • hotelzululima August 5, 2014 at 2:34pm

    Mea Culpa by SJPD at http://www.sjpd.org/inews/viewPressRelease.asp?ID=1874 regarding non communications with public about the Century Heli drone acquisition.

    The same vendor who  I did NOT identify IN the post about the  local agency(NOT SJPD)Police Commander getting his trunk queen(phantom vision) worked on when I stopped by in Oct  2013.

           hzl

  • Ian June 28, 2014 at 1:54pm

    The police here in Canada use the Aeryon Skyranger or Scout much better suited for this sort of work, you don't need to spend years learning to fly a rc multi, but it's a lot more expensive. 

  • hotelzululima June 28, 2014 at 3:34am

    Hi @craigbussel,

     personally given that MOST LEO agencies do have both indemnification and insurance to cover some possible mishaps and given the scenarios for which these are being deployed, ie situational awareness for violent crime and accident management, forensics, finding the lost,the safety dangers do not seem very extreme for folks who carry guns.

    Consequences for civilians caught in the path of an accident are a bit more but nothing that cant be managed,

    ie Citizens get caught in the path of harm by policing actions quite frequently while crime is occurring and police are responding,

    nothing new here AND this tool will solve more problems and save more money than it costs in direct costs and insurance payouts.

    I  have been waiting for the flaming to die down a bit so that possibly the diydrones community can offer more  substantive operational hints/guidelines that include the use of tools like this in rural and metro policing/forensics and disaster management other than simply dont.

           just my .02

          hzl

  • Craig Bussel June 27, 2014 at 10:39pm
    Maybe it is just me, but how is this a bad thing? True they are using an entry level airframe, but, how is that a bad thing? This has some positive attributes as well. For the stated mission of the aircraft, they are a perfect fit. Something an officer can keep in the trunk of his cruiser and launch when needed. Yeah, I would be much happier if they were using a 3DR X8 myself, but, they are in a learning curve, at least they are doing this much and looking at the tech as a positive attribute. Stop getting your panties in a bind.
  • David Boulanger June 27, 2014 at 5:37pm

    No Kidding.  I used to live in that yacht basin. Mostly Ft. Myers police around and not Lee county deputies. 

    Regards,

    David R. Boulanger

  • hotelzululima June 27, 2014 at 2:28pm

    @jack crossfire

    actually Lt. Gary Desrosiers is quite real and is indeed a Lee County Sheriff/LEO it would appear. Google searches verify who he is and who his employer is (LCSO).

          hzl

    ps suggest you call him  up at work and verify if you believe this is a DJI marketing stunt...

  • Mike Knott June 27, 2014 at 2:17pm

    If they're dumb enough to impersonate a LEO, that's a new low...

  • Jack Crossfire June 27, 2014 at 2:07pm

    DJI is aggressive about providing free stuff & paying fulltime RC pilots to stand in as casual users.  Who knows what's actually true.  Of course, you never know what's true when Chris says "one button 3D mapping" either.

  • hotelzululima June 27, 2014 at 1:59pm
    DHS approval/non-approval is immaterial to most Sheriffs and a LOT of metro/small town LEO(s) I suspect. And given the legal definition of Public aircraft vs Civil aircraft vs FAA.. legally not relevant.
    The COA process is a big joke dominated by the military UAV makers and simply enough given the current legal climate in Trappys case a lot of smaller depts/officers are simply forging ahead with what they can find on the shelf at "reasonable" costs toy quality or not.
    This is the reality of the present day.. I have observed it going on since at least the Vision 2 release and the week of that release I met 3 different officers from 3 different agencies flying DJI frame(2 visions and one S800), and I was not even looking for them.
    The insurance companies WILL put a stop to it once enough incidents occur.. but again individual officers and smaller depts without DHS budgets ARE in fact buying and flying these in the course of their duties.
    These are the "facts on the ground" ie reality.


    hzl
  • Mike Knott June 27, 2014 at 1:49pm

    I can't believe the state is letting them use an unencrypted transmission system. Or even a wifi based system.

This reply was deleted.